Carolynne Burkholder-James

The Practice

Volunteering as a board member can benefit both your community and your law career as well, according to Matthew Reid.

Reid is a personal injury lawyer with Cohen Highley LLP in London, Ont., who has extensive experience as a board member. Currently, he is a school trustee and chair of the Thames Valley District School Board and president and chair of the board at HOBY Canada, a youth leadership program. Reid has also been a board member with Regional HIV/AIDS Connection and several other organizations.

Reid says he encourages young lawyers to volunteer their services as a board member.

Your practice

Law firm retreats should be about more than just golf, experts say. With some preparation, a clear goal and agenda, these retreats can be a good opportunity for team building and strategic planning.

Sandra Bekhor is the president of Bekhor Management, a Toronto-based consulting firm that provides marketing and strategic planning services to professional practices and small to mid-sized businesses. She says that law firm retreats can be a chance for lawyers to get out of the day-to-day practise of law and focus on the bigger picture.

“Every law firm has higher-level objectives that they can’t get to during the week because they’re busy running their practice,” Bekhor says. “And if you don’t carve out that time outside of the office, outside of meeting with clients and managing your staff, you just never get to it.”

The practice

The number of people representing themselves in family and civil court has dramatically increased over the last few years throughout Canada. For example, an Alberta study in 2012 found that more than half of family law files involved a self-represented litigant.

Self-represented litigants pose a challenge for lawyers, their clients and the judicial system in general. Here are some tips on how to deal with them.

Not all self-represented litigants are the same

Lawrence Pinsky lawyer at Taylor McCaffrey LLP in Winnipeg, says there are at least two types of self-represented litigants.

“First, there are those who can’t afford a lawyer. They are self-reps, not by choice but by no choice,” he says.

“Second, there are the self-reps who are self-reps by choice because they feel that one does not need any sort of education or objectivity to be a lawyer or they really want to have their voices heard or they have personality disorders,” says Pinsky.

“I don’t think it’s fair to lump both of those groups together,” he adds.

Young lawyers

Many lawyers find themselves trapped in the so-called “golden handcuffs” where their inflated lifestyle requires them to stay in a high-pressure career.

But some young lawyers are trying to combat lifestyle inflation.

Leah Klassen, who practices wills and estates and family law in Ajax, Ont., describes herself as someone who “tries to rebel against the traditional view of a lawyer.”

But even Klassen says that she sometimes feels societal pressure to look, act and spend like a lawyer.

“When people hear that you are a lawyer, they expect you to live a glamorous lifestyle,” says Klassen, who began her legal career in February 2016 as an associate lawyer with Marie G. Michaels and Associates. “Sometimes I find myself justifying spending money on my appearance – things like manicures and my wardrobe. I think that has a lot to do with the perception that lawyers who look good and wear designer clothes are successful. I don't actually subscribe to that, but I find myself justifying those kind of purchases anyway.”

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